


Spirit of the North

by rhiaofthemyscira



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arya centric, Dark fic, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 22:24:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4197231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhiaofthemyscira/pseuds/rhiaofthemyscira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya loses herself before she finds her family again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirit of the North

**Author's Note:**

> This is one, kind of sad, idea I had about Arya's future. This is a canon divergence sometime after the Red Wedding. It comes in 2 parts, the first half is from Arya's point of view, and the second is excerpts from a made up book called the "A Complete History of the War of Five Kings"

Cold. That is all she feels now. She is no one, a shadow in the night, a spirit of vengeance, a ghost story parents tell their children to keep them inside when the darkness comes. She is the She-Wolf.

She doesn’t remember her name, perhaps she never had one. All she knows is darkness and an endless cold that sits deep in her bones. She doesn’t know why she thirsts for blood, just that she does. The sweetest blood comes from the men on their high horses that carry banners of towers and lions and flayed men. But no matter how much blood she takes, she always thirsts for more.

She has forgotten the words of the humans, or maybe she never knew them. She doesn’t recall any life but the one she has now. She is part of the wolf pack and rides on the back of the largest wolf. Nymeria that word sometimes floats through her mind when she thinks of the great grey wolf, but as soon as she thinks she recalls what it means, it slips away again.

She doesn’t quite know what she is. She knows she is different than the other wolves; she can’t run as fast, she doesn’t have warm fur covering her body, and she can make men bleed by poking them full of holes with a sharp stick she carries (she doesn’t know why she has it or what it is but when she sees a target her body knows what to do). But she is not quite like the targets they hunt either. She doesn’t have the hard shell of the shiny men, nor do her legs hide like the humans with long hair. She doesn’t understand what the humans are saying so she decides that must not be one of them.

Sometimes she likes to climb the trees near a small grouping of humans and watch one of the humans make the shiny stuff, metal she thinks, sing. She doesn’t know why but watching the man hit the glowing metal calms her as if the song and the glow can chase way the darkness and the cold. It never does because before long the darkness returns and the man stops, and everything is cold again.

One day the man looks up and his bright blue eyes meet hers. Arya he shouts in alarm dropping his large stick and running towards her. She flees. That word he said, it almost seemed familiar. She ignores it. She doesn’t come back to the tree.

She is running now. Running and hunting and killing. The light lingers longer now the darkness is being chased away. She is tired. Each time the darkness returns the cold is a little less and it frightens her. All she has known is cold and darkness. The large wolf grows slower as the snow begins to melt and soon it stops moving. With nowhere left to go she lies down next to the still wolf and as the rays of light peak over the tree tops and the last of the snow fades away she closes her eyes embracing the darkness like a long lost friend.

* * *

Excerpts from _A Complete History of the War of Five Kings_ by Maester Samwell Tarly

  

The Starks:

After the victory of the Dragon Queen in the War of Five Kings, the land began to settle down and the land began to rearrange itself. Starks began appear from across the land, returning to their home in Winterfell. In the end all but one Stark would be accounted for.

Lord Eddard Stark was beheaded in King Landing. It is commonly accepted that this was the event that marked the beginning of the war.

Lady Catelyn Stark and Lord Robb Stark were killed at the Red Wedding. Both were killed by the Freys although Lady Catelyn was brought back to life for a brief period as Lady Stoneheart. She too was eventually killed before the end of the war.

Lady Sansa Stark was found disguised as a bastard in the Eyrie. She returned to Winterfell after the war to spend the rest of her life with her remaining family. She never remarried.

Lord Brandon Stark returned to Winterfell after the war to take up his father’s position as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. He is accredited to finding the Children of the Forest and playing a crucial role in the war against the White Walkers. He lived out his days ruling the North justly, however due to his crippled nature he never had any heirs.

Lord Rickon Stark was found living with a wildling woman. He too returned to Winterfell although he retained his wild nature for the rest of his days. He did marry and had 2 sons and 1 daughter who would carry on the Stark legacy.

It seemed that only young Lady Arya Stark was lost forever in the chaos of the war. There are no official reports of sightings of Lady Arya since the beheading of her father, Lord Eddard Stark. Although one Baratheon bastard and a few members of the Brotherhood Without Banners swear they rode with her for a brief time before the Red Wedding, having parted ways when the Hound, Sandor Clegane, took Lady Arya to see her brother Lord Rob at the Twins. There have been no confirmed reports dating after the Red Wedding. So we must assume she was killed in the chaos and her body was burned with the rest.

The Spirit of the North:

The legends say that towards the end of the War of Five Kings the line between the living and the dead was broken. The White Walkers descended from beyond the wall, raising an army of the fallen. But it seemed that the White Walkers weren’t the only ones to cross over. They say a spirit came to Westeros at this time, a vengeful spirit that would prowl the realm seeking blood for years to come. While the White Walkers were dealt with by the Dragon Queen, enemies of the Starks began to drop dead as soon as this spirit entered the land of the living. Freys, Lannisters, and Boltons alike, none were safe for no amount of stone or men could keep the spirit at bay. No one knows where the spirit came from or what it looked like although some swear to visions of a wild northern girl riding atop a direwolf, the long lost Arya Stark they say. Whether or not this spirit was a specter born of the underworld or Lady Arya Stark herself the world may never know. Regardless, the spirit disappeared when the long winter ended and the land returned to peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Arya did die at the end, in case that wasn't clear. I don't really know where this came from. I often imagine Arya coming back to Westeros and tracking down all those who wronged her family. But as I started writing, it transformed into this sad story.


End file.
